Day 69 - USA Tour - Billings, MT

Sightseeing Mileage in Glendive area: 457
Starting Mileage leaving Glendive: 5115
Ending Mileage arriving Billings, MT: 5342
Miles Driven: 232
Avg. MPG: 7.4
Gas Price: $4.09--Miles City, MT

Overnight: Billings, Montana
Billings Trailer Village RV Park
Travel and Sightseeing Day:
- Pompey’s Pillar

We left Glendive a little earlier than usual. It was 9:15 AM.

As we drove, the terrain changed quickly to mountainous and pine trees. But, that didn’t last long. Before we knew it, we were back into farming and flat lands surrounded by mountains.



We stopped at a Dairy Queen in Forsyth, MT, for lunch. It was a quaint town and very “country” but they had a beautiful courthouse. After our lunch, we decided to drive by the courthouse and we got stuck by a train. I think we were at the tracks for about 20 minutes. However, we were not bored. There was a teenager on the sidewalk who was also unable to cross. So, he practiced many maneuvers on his skateboard. If only I had thought to turn on the movie camera. I could have made $10,000 on AFV (American’s Funniest Videos).



The temperature was climbing steadily as we crossed this arid part of the state. The temperature climbed to 97 degrees. And, we really missed those South Dakota breezes. The air was very still.

We did follow the Yellowstone River most of the drive and that added some really beautiful sights of rushing waters.



Since the Glendive area, we have seen a lot of road signs stating that we were following the Lewis and Clark Trail. This has been baffling us because we thought that the expedition's route was along the Missouri River west to the Columbia River and on out to the Astoria, Oregon, area. But, we finally found out that the expedition followed the Yellowstone River on their return trip eastward. Mystery solved.

Our only planned stop today was at Pompey’s Pillar. This is a rock pillar that contains the only known physical evidence, other than journal entries, of Lewis and Clark’s expedition. On the side of the pillar of sandstone, William Clark signed his name. So, I really wanted to see this.



Pompey's Pillar was named after Baptiste Charbonneau, the infant son of Sacagawea, the Shoshoni woman who accompanied the expedition. Pomp was the nickname Clark gave the young boy. In his journals, Clark originally named the pillar "Pomp’s Tower."

When we arrived at the pillar, the parking area for RVs was quite a distance from the visitor’s center, so Dave dropped me off while he parked the RV (I had hoped he could spot something closer). I went inside the visitor's center to inquire as to the location of the signature. I was informed we would have to walk along a 1,000-ft boardwalk and then up 200 steps to see the signature. I quickly opted out of this trek!

So, I rushed back outside to catch Dave before he walked all the way in to the visitor’s center (about 1,000-ft in the opposite direction of the pillar). By now the outside temperature is 101 degrees. Instead of walking in the street to meet Dave, I naturally took their beautiful path to the parking lot. That was a big mistake. This path had no exit to get to the street unless I wanted to traverse cactus-like plants. I think I walked about 500-ft before I could exit to the street. By the time Dave drove the RV to meet me, I was hot, sweaty, cranky, suffering a heat headache, and in no mood to go back to the visitor's center to look around. So we exited post haste. But, hey, at least we did see the pillar!

Back on the road again, the terrain began to change from hills and rocks and back to farmland and flat, dry, land. As we approached Billings, we were not impressed with the town. It is very industrial and hot and dusty.

We finally found the campground and it was completely covered in blacktop. Our tires really chewed up the melting pavement as we navigated into our spot. There are grassy patches between each site and behind the sites. But, the car and RV were parked on that hot pavement. When we looked at the temperature that registers in the car, it was 107 degrees coming off that blacktop. Poor Dave had to do all the setting up in that blistering heat.





And, yet another surprise. We had to pay for our WiFi. the office staff made it sound like a bargain because "It was free for the first 12 hours." We had not paid for WiFi at any campground, so far, on this trip. Now, I thought we’d be clever and only be on the WiFi a little bit at a time and save up our 12 hours. But, oh no. It’s free for the first 12 hours from the time you first log on. So, we ended up timing it so that we only had to pay for one 24-hr. timeframe on Dave’s computer--I was out of luck. It was only a $1.50, but if they want to charge for this service, they should state so in their advertisement. But, alas.

For dinner, we ventured out to a local Mexican restaurant. It wasn’t the greatest, but it wasn’t too bad. We just can’t get over the casinos in the area. In Montana, almost every independent restaurant has a casino attached to it. Large chains like Applebee’s or Outback do not have casinos.

We settled in early as we had to get up and travel over an hour to get to the Little Big Horn Battlefield. So, nighty night!

Day 68 - USA Tour - Glendive, MT

Overnight: Glendive, MT
R&R Day

Today (July 25) we decided to hang around Glendive just in case Dave's relatives arrived back in Sidney from their vacation. We were both pretty tired from all the hunting and pecking around the ancestral stomping grounds. But, no one called. So, we just puttered and rested.

We did manage get the throw rugs washed and that was about it for any "major" activities. We will be leaving Glendive in the morning.

Day 67 - USA Tour - Glendive, MT

Overnight: Glendvive, MT
Ancestor Research Day

Up early to make sandwiches again for a our second day of ancestor searching. But, we ended up puttering around until time to leave. We knew that the luncheon was not going to start until noon. We did not want to disturb the woman who was a relative while she was trying to prepare the lunch. So, we left at about 10:30 AM; it's an hour's drive to Lambert from Glendive.

When we arrived in Lambert, the door to the museum was open--a good thing. We ventured in and found out that the senior center was accessible through the museum. When we inquired about the relative, we were informed that Kathy & Kenny Thornton, the folks who usually cook, were on vacation. Wouldn't you know it.

But, several folks from the town, who had lived there most of their lives, began to help us search for information throughout the museum and their recollections.

It seems that some of the Thorntons (the maiden name of Dave's grandmother) still live in and around the area. Dave was able to speak with Peggy Thornton. She is married to the great-grandson of one of Dave's grandmother's brothers. Did you follow that? Anyway, she didn't provide any new information. But, said she'd have Kenny (who is in his 80s and the son of his grandmother's brother) call when they got back from vacation on Friday.

Dave thoroughly scoped out the museum for any information. The only advantageous information was contained in some plaques they had about graduates of the high school.



Rueben Leon Migneault's actual graduation picture, not a duplication.

Dave found some pictures of the town's early days. And, he purchased a book that's quite large about the town's descendants. A brother of Dave's grandfather, Henry Migneault, is mentioned as being a resident, but no other mentions are made of the Migneault family except for the graduates (information about Lee and Pete).

We did find out the contact for the list of those buried in the cemetery. So, Dave talked with him. But, no Migneaults are listed. He suggested that we go to a cemetery that is close to the great-grandparent's farm in a city called Three Buttes. Because we were to go to the area to look at the farm land, we headed out at about 2 PM.

We arrived at the cemetery and it took us all of 3 minutes to search. There were only about 10 graves in the cemetery. And, none were Migneaults.

We drove around the area trying to find some remnants of the family's farm. We found the land because we had the documents from our courthouse search a few days ago.

The following pictures with the old building are of the farmland of Captain and Bertha Thornton. They were the parents of Dave's grandmother (Sarah Thornton). The Thorntons were neighbors of Antine and Marie Migneault, who were the parents of Dave's grandfather (Joseph [Sonny] Migneault). We assume that Sonny and Sarah met because they had neighboring farms.

The Thorntons owned about 180 acres (a little more than a homestead) and the Migneaults owned 320 acres (two homesteads).





We only found a trash pile, which contained some building remnants on Dave's father's family farm. The sad thing is that there are several oil wells on the family farm now. Homesteaders of the 1800s had mineral rights to the property.

The following pictures of land and oil wells on land are of Dave's family's farm land.





Our next stop was to drive back to Sidney to visit that funeral home. In Lambert, the keeper of the cemetery list had suggest we check this cemetery as well. Unfortunately, there was no listing for an Antine Migneault. So, the mystery continues as to where he was buried. The funeral director suggested that possibly he was buried on the family farm as that was often done in those days.

Dave did find in the Sidney cemetery the grave sites of his great-grandmother/grandfather on his mother's side: Captain and Bertha Thornton.



Well, by now, we are overloaded with information and our brains needed a rest. So, we drove back to the RV, where I fixed leftovers of the meatball meal I had made last night. It was just as yummy as leftovers.

We have decided to stay another day in hopes of hearing from Kenny Thornton. In addition, Dave has a contact in Billings, MT, from another line of descendants (the Hubleys) that he will call and see if they'd like to get together when we arrive in Billings. Sherman Hubley had responded to Dave's inquiry about family a year ago and written a nice long letter. Sherman shared memories he had of visiting Dave's family on their farm in Lambert.

Day 66 - USA Tour - Glendive, MT

Overnight: Glendive, MT
Ancestor Research Day

This morning we drove to Lambert, MT, to see the town where Dave's great-grandparents settled after immigrating from Canada.



This grain elevator was used at the time Dave's father lived in Lambert.



We hoped to find some remnants of folks that might have remembered his grandparents or his father and siblings.

We found the current high school and were able to see his father's picture in the display of former graduates. His father, Reuben Leon Migneault, is pictured in the second row, first picture. The school also gave Dave a copy of his father's senior year school records with grades and other information. Sooooo cool.



Our next stop was the post office to see what we could find out about the city's museum. We found out that a relative, distant, would be serving a senior lunch the next day at the senior center, next to the museum. The museum was closed today, but it would be open tomorrow.

Next stop was to view the property where Dave's great-grandmother, Marie, had resided, in town.

Our final destination for the day was to scour the two graveyards in town. First stop was the Protestant graveyard to look for Antine Migneault's grave. Antine Migneault was Dave's great-grandfather. He was a lumberjack and was killed when a tree fell on him in Washington state. We know his body was shipped back to Lambert, because that was printed in the Washington newspaper. Antine had 13 surviving children and his wife, Marie, and she continued to live in Lambert quite a long time. She raised the children in Lambert and Dave's grandfather, Joseph Migneault (known as Sonny) and his wife, Sarah Thornton (Migneault), lived in Lambert as well.

Dave's father and his sibling were raised in Lambert. Dave's father, Reuben (known as Lee) and his father's brother, Clarence, (known as Pete) moved away from Lambert after graduating high school and settled in Van Nuys, California.

Lee had two other siblings, Carrol (male) and Irene. We cannot find out where they graduated from high school. We do know that the family moved away from Lambert about 1937, but we are not sure where they moved at that time. Carrol and Irene and their families eventually settled in California.

We believe that Marie Migneault (Dave's great-grandmother) continued to live in Lambert until the mid-1940s when she moved to Van Nuys and lived with Dave's parents for a very short time. He isn't sure what happened to her. It was before Dave was born.

Sonny and Sarah Migneault were killed in an automobile accident when Dave was about 2 years old.

We had hoped to find some gravesites of the Migneault family. But, we didn't find nary a one. We did find some relatives that were on his great-grandmother's side (great aunts/uncles), but none that were Dave's direct line of ancestors.



We had been warned at the Sidney Courthouse that we wouldn't find a place to eat in Lambert, so I had packed a lunch. We found a shady street and ate before we headed for the Catholic cemetery. We did not find any ancestors in this graveyard.

We drove around the area for a little bit, and then we headed back to the RV. I had prepared another crockpot meal. It was Italian meat balls in a sauce made with mushroom soup, cream cheese, and mushrooms. Served over noodles with some green veggies. Yummy. I will definitely make this one again. Easy and very tasty.

Day 65 - USA Tour - Glendive, MT

Overnight: Glendive, MT
Ancestor Research Day

Before embarking on the genealogy journey today, Dave and I did 4 loads of laundry. Phew! That’s done for another week. You don’t realize how accommodating it is to do laundry in your home. When you have to go to the laundry at the campground, you have to sit and wait. The two times I have gone away and come back later, I had problems. One time, I forgot to put in the money and the other time I had an unbalanced load. So, both of those times, it took twice as long to finish. Now, I'll just have to sit and babysit the machines.

Our first stop this morning was the sheriff’s office in Glendive, the city in which we are camped. This is the city where Dave’s great-grandfather was arrested for horse stealing (he was later acquitted because he was holding the horses or selling the horses to satisfy a debt that he was owed). From Glendive, his great-grandfather was sent back to Missoula to stand trial. Dave was hoping to find some more information other than the newspaper article he currently possesses.

Dave did find the name of the arresting sheriff when we went to the Dawson County Courthouse, also here in Glendive. We also found out that we need to go to Missoula, MT, to find out more information about the arrest as Missoula is the county that issued the warrant for his arrest.

We stopped off at Subway for a quick sandwich before heading north to our next stop, which is Sidney, MT. This is the county seat for Lambert, MT, where his grandparents resided. Dave wanted to find out exactly where their property was located. The county seat of Sidney is about 50 miles from our current location.

There is diverse terrain between Glendive and Sidney. First we cross the beautiful Yellowstone River. It is so huge, and such a surprise to see in this desert area.

Then, we pass wheat fields that are a beautiful shade of yellow. The fun thing to do when we pass them is to look for deer hiding in the fields. They lay down and just poke their heads above the crop top. I have tried to catch a picture of this, but have been unable to do so.



There is also a section that is part of the badlands-type terrain.



Most of the area's terrain, though, is massive wheat farms with oil wells sprinkled in for flavor.

We did run across yet another shape for the haystacks. I call these hay "loaves." They look just like loaves of bread.



At that courthouse we found papers from his great-grandfather and –grandmother’s sides of the family. Dave was also able to get a certified copy of his grandparent’s marriage license.

While in the courthouse at Sidney, we ran into a family that was also doing research. And, surprise, they are distant relatives (cousins of cousins of cousins, so to speak) of Dave’s great-grandmother. That was kind of fun because some of their relatives were also Dave’s.

It’s quite a chore to do this type of research because you have to go through lots of record books to find information. But, it is also addictive. I guess we were going through books and making copies for about 3 hours. We got plat maps of the townships and were able to locate the family's homestead.

We were done about 3:30 PM and headed for "home." For dinner I had cooked corned beef and cabbage with potatoes in the crockpot. It was so nice to have the meal all done when we arrived home.

In the evening, Dave busied himself with trying to put a lot of pieces together from the information he retrieved. He has 25 pages of records, 2 large city maps, and his grandparent’s marriage license to sort through. I, on the other hand, busied myself with the important task of catching up on my reality TV shows.

Day 64 - USA Tour - Glendive, MT

Sightseeing Mileage in Medora area: 35
Starting Mileage leaving Medora: 4597
Ending Mileage arriving Glendive, MT: 4658
Miles Driven: 61
Avg. MPG: 7.6
Gas Price: $4.14--Sidney, MT

Overnight: Glendive, Montana
Travel Day

Because we were not able to drive through the North Dakota Badlands last night, we had thought we’d do that this morning. But, we opted out of that journey as we had seen enough of Medora. We certainly were not sad to leave trains and Cowboy Joe and move onward to Montana. Dave is really looking forward to starting more genealogy work when we arrive in Montana.

So, we packed up and left Medora, ND, at about 10 AM. Although we didn't have much to put away or clean up before leaving, we tried to dally a bit because we only had about 60 miles to drive.

We arrived in Glendive, Montana, at 11 AM. It is really hot here and this city does not have the nice gentle breezes we have grown accustomed to in South Dakota. After we got the RV all set up, I decided to vacuum and scrub the floors. It’s so much easier in this little “house,” but it still takes a lot out of me because I just drip in this heat.



With set up and cleaning done, we rested a bit before we headed out to check out the town. We had seen an ad for a Mexican restaurant in their local come-on-in-and-shop brochure, so we were also going to try to find them--the ad didn't provide an address, but we asked around. We haven’t had Mexican food in so long we are about foaming at the thought. We found the casino in which the Mexican restaurant was supposed to be located. But they had gone out of business.

Speaking of casinos, they are everywhere in South and North Dakota. They are not those big Indian reservation kind, but little storefronts and strip-mall shops that have casinos instead of clothing stores. They don't allow "21" or Blackjack, but everyone has those video one-armed bandits and other similar games. So far, we have not been tempted to leave money at the casinos. We leave enough at the ice cream stores!

Back to our Mexican quest: our next best option was a franchise we see all around the Midwest called “Taco John’s.” Well, I now know why we haven’t frequented them to date. And, after that not-so-yummy meal, we will avoid them in the future.

Back at the RV, we settled down for a, hopefully, quiet night’s rest before embarking on Dave's genealogy research in the morning.

Day 63 - USA Tour - Medora, ND

Overnight: Medora, ND
Sightseeing Day:
- Bully: A Conversation with Theodore Roosevelt
- Theodore Roosevelt National Park and the North Dakota Badlands

Not moving early this morning. We had decided yesterday that today we'd go the play "Bully," which was not to start until 4 PM. After that, our plans were to drive the North Dakota Badlands at sunset.

No surprise, we were kept awake most of the night with trains; they are worse here than anywhere else we have camped--and we've even had trains that were closer to us. These trains come all day and all night and blow their piercing whistle each time they cross the street near the campground and every other street along the main drag.

From 5 PM until 10:30 PM, “Cowboy Joe” entertains the campground inhabitants by strumming is guitar and singing songs on the loud speaker. He's perched in front of the office and about 25 folks joined in with the frolicking. We are camped only 6 RV spaces from the office, so this was quite disrupting to the anticipated quiet of the evening. Geez, I could hardly hear my reality TV!! Ha Ha.

At 3 PM, we headed out for the “Bully” play. The seating was first-come first-served with pre-paid tickets, so "I" wanted to get in line early. The doors opened at 3:30 PM. We were in line at 3:15 PM—and we were the only ones in line until about 3:50 PM! I keep forgetting that we are not in Kansas anymore--oh, I mean Atlanta--and that there are few people to attend these performances and events. And, even fewer than usual because all the campgrounds have told us they are down about one-third of their usual summer business.

Dave was teasing me as I wanted to be sure that we got down in front. Due to our extremely early arrival, we were most definitely in the front row for "Bully."

This is a picture of the set, which is not good color or focus, but I wanted to share the set with you anyway. Yes, that's Dave head in the picture. Also, here's a pic of the actor that played Teddy. At the end of the play, he and most of the audience were donning real tears. As Teddy, he was sharing the experience of the loss of his youngest son in the war.





The play and his acting were quite good. We both learned so much about Theodore Roosevelt that we didn’t know, and we now have a much better appreciation for him as a man and our president.

After the play, we drove to Theodore Roosevelt National Park to take the loop-drive through the Badlands. We first stopped at the visitor’s center. Naturally, we found wildlife to share with you. (What's a blog entry without the local wildlife?)



The visitor's center had a video about the area, which was right up our alley. We walked around the center and looked at their museum. Then, we were off to the Badlands. No sooner had we gotten on the road when the skies opened up.

Here's the storm front rolling in upon us.



We had hail and even the prairie dogs ducked for cover. So, within a 15 minutes we turned back around and headed for the RV. It was still teaming when we got there and we got pretty wet just running to the RV; but, hey, we were at least cooled off a bit!

I had fixed country-style spare ribs in the crock pot earlier in the day. So, when we got back to the RV, I cooked up some Bush’s Grilling Beans to go with the ribs and we settled in for the night--trains, cowboy Joe, and all.

Day 62 - USA Tour - Medora, ND

Sightseeing Mileage in Spearfish area: 244
Starting Mileage leaving Spearfish: 4369
Ending Mileage arriving Medora: 4562
Miles Driven: 193
Avg. MPG: 7.7
Gas Price: $4.09--Belfield, ND

Overnight: Medora, North Dakota
Travel Day

As normal, we didn't get on the road until about 10 AM. We had a long drive, mostly due north, today. The terrain was gently rolling hills with lots of grasses. We are still among the national grasslands areas.



I made sandwiches for us to eat along the way. When we have a long drive and we are pulling the trailer, I "try" to remember to make lunch as it's difficult to pull into parking lots and it takes a long time to get served when we stop at a restaurant.

We pulled along side the emergency area of the road to eat lunch. There was no where to pull off the road--at least at the time we wanted to eat. We sat in the trailer with the door open and battled flies. I think we picked up about 20 hitchhikers by the time we left. The field we were parked next to was a wheat field (we think) and there were thousands of grasshoppers as we walked along the side of the road.

One of the peculiar things we have noticed on this trip is that when there are cows pastured within hundreds of acres of farmland, they seem to congregate in one teeny-tiny corner of the field. Mind you, it's very hot, and they just seem to snuggle with each other.

We saw an unusual sight in one of the open range pastures. Two horses took off chasing a herd of about 15 prong-horned antelope. It was quite funny as the horses seemed to be having a great time chasing the antelope about the area.

Northern South Dakota and North Dakota seem to be sprouting lots of oil wells that are active. Many have large storage tanks beside the wells. I didn't realize there was so much drilling in this area.

For the first time on this trip, we have seen large herds of sheep today. I love this picture with the donkey among the sheep. Is he trying to be the black sheep?



When we left US 85 North and headed west on I-94, the terrain changed rapidly to a Badlands area. It looked much like the Badlands out of Wall, SD, but not quite as tall. The colors were about the same. But, there is more brush on these Badlands than in Wall.



Medora is a clean, western-themed town.



The campground sites were rather close together as you had someone directly behind you. The distance between sites was a little less than average, but there is little grass and the sites seemed very dusty. A strange phenomenon we had not experienced in other campgrounds is that campers seem to have no thought of boundaries. Kids, adults, and pets just walk right through your camp, even when you are sitting at the picnic table at your own site. Strange lack of privacy.



No sooner had we gotten set up when the trains started. Geez. They sound as if they are right on top of you (they are next to the campground), but their whistles were exceptionally loud. Not sure if that's because the sound echos off of the mountains or what (see next campground picture with mountains in background). But, each time one comes through, there is a series of three whistles. And, they come through about every 2 hours.



We rested a bit, despite the trains, and then headed out to check out the town and find a place to eat. We thought we'd like a steak as we have not had one in about a month. Finding a place to eat seemed like a big deal. We ended up at a saloon that was very noisy and not so tidy. The table cloth, plastic, was so dirty I'm not sure how long it had been since it was property cleaned. We were just about to head out when the server appeared. We had already determined most of the other places were of the same caliber. So, we just stuck it out. We didn't go for a steak; we opted for burgers instead. They were good, but I was glad to get out of there.

During our drive around town, we had spotted an ad for a one-man show about President Teddy Roosevelt that would be presented the next day. So, we found a place to get tickets as we thought that we might learn something and be entertained at the same time. Tomorrow will tell.

We had our ice cream later that night (complements of our Wal-Mart shopping) and settled in to try and sleep through the trains.

Day 61 - USA Tour - Spearfish, SD

Overnight: Spearfish, SD
Car Repair Day

Today entailed finding the GMC dealer and getting ready to sit half the day at the dealership while they checked out the AC in the car. Because we had to take it in for the AC, we had decided to get the hoses checked out and the oil changed.

To our pleasure, they brought us back to the RV to wait for it to be completed. Shortly they called with the news that the brakes were near their end of life and the emergency brake was gone. The noise in the AC was from debris that they windshield repairman let drop into the fan area. I think there was something about cleaning out something or other also.

So, our $700 "air conditioner check" was a bit over the top. HA HA. We were glad that it was all done and we are ready to roll for the next 5,000 miles.

After we got the car back, we had the arduous task of shopping for groceries at Wal-Mart. It just wears you out. All that double-handling is a PAIN. But, it was done and we are good to go for a little more than a week, except for items like milk and bread.

I fixed left-overs for dinner. No sooner had we gotten that done when the skies opened up with severe storms. I haven't seen skies like this in years. We had some hail, of course. I was so nervous they'd get big enough to crack that new windshield. But, alas, the stones were only pea-sized.









We took our screaming feet to bed as early as possible as it's up early in the morning to get our chores done before heading to North Dakota.

Day 60 - USA Tour - Spearfish, SD

Overnight: Spearfish, SD
- Deadwood, SD

Moseyed around this morning waiting for the windshield repairman to appear. He was promptly here at 10 AM and set right to work. It took him about 90 minutes to replace the windshield. Then, we set off for Deadwood.

About 5 minutes into the drive, we realized that the air conditioner fan was making a horrendous sound--almost like the good old days when as children we used to clip playing cards onto the spokes of our bicycle wheels to make them sound fierce with a flip-flip-flip sound.

I called the repairman and, of course, he assured us it was nothing that he had done. He suggested we take the car to the GMC dealer the next day and get it checked out. If he caused damage, he said he'd pay for the repairs. So, we proceeded onward to Deadwood.



Our first stop was the visitor. Usually the people that staff these centers are very helpful. As you may remember, there was virtually no help in Lead, which is the town next to Deadwood. Anyway, in Deadwood, she was about as forth-coming with information as nothing. We did drag out of her that we could take the trolley from that location into town (probably only about 4 large city blocks) to book a tour of the town. I grabbed some brochures from the "fly trap" about the three tours available. And, we sat and waited for the trolley. And waited. And waited. Finally, it arrived. When we thought we were heading for town, it took a jaunt toward out of town. We thought we might be on the wrong trolley and headed back to Spearfish! But, shortly, the trolley driver turned us back toward town. Phew.

Most town trolleys charge one fee for an on-off/all-day ticket, and they also provide some brief talks about the locations you pass. Not this one. It was $1 per-person per hop on. No talk. So, we determined not to board again unless we really had to.

We arrived at the kiosk for the tour buses and promptly booked a 5 PM tour. It was currently about 2 PM, and we still had to eat lunch. We knew that we wanted to watch the "play" that's presented at 8 PM at the far end of town. It's called the "Trial of Jack McCall." McCall is the man that shot Wild Bill Hickok in the back as he sat playing cards.





Back to lunch. We were told by the kiosk operator and a nearby tourist that we should go to the Saloon No. 10 for lunch. The restaurant was upstairs (but they had an elevator in the back). Of course, one-arm-bandits and the saloon took up the first floor. We headed for the back of the building to find the elevator and were stopped short by an on-going stage show which completely blocked the entry the elevator. Fortunately, the outlaw actor was in the process of choosing kids to participate. So, I interrupted him and asked if we could pass on through. He said yes, but my "pass" would be a hug. I could deal with it. So, I hugged. Dave approached him and said, "You'll get no hug from me, Bucko." Of course, the audience loved it, so Dave was allowed to accompany me.

The meal was good. We dallied as we knew we had a long time to go before the 5 PM tour. We decided to walk around town and see what there was to see. And, of course, Dave wanted to go shopping. He loves to window-shop, and I just abhor it unless I have a specific objective. But, the shops are interesting, to some degree, so off we went.

I found a cute Cowboy charm. Dave found a beautiful, heavy, wide, fully-studded turquoise bracelet. He really loved it, but we knew it would be way out of our price range. When the saleswoman showed it to us, she cut the price so much, Dave just couldn't say no. It is really a great piece and it's his big find of this trip. In all of our dilling and dallying, we lost track of the time, and almost missed the tour bus. We had 2 minutes to get there, but we made it.



I took a picture of the bracelet on my arm so that you could see just how big this bracelet really is.





Here's the oldest building left in town (the red building), the jewelry shop where Dave purchased his bracelet (the blue building), and the back of our tour bus.



The tour was pretty good. And, I was glad that we were on a bus. The road to Boot Hills was VERY steep and very narrow. And, once we got there, we would have had to park very far away and "hike" up to the notorious grave sites. Because we were on the bus, we got to park fairly close. After walking up a couple of flights of stairs to get to the graves, we had seats to sit on. The driver must have talked for about 15 minutes giving us all the history of the town folks buried there.



Calamity Jane is buried right next to Wild Bill. Wild Bill has the large statue. Calamity just has this marker. Their graves were moved up to the new Boot Hill after the new cemetery was completed.



Boot Hill is not in the original place it once stood. The original Boot Hill ran out of space quickly and the town decided to create a second cemetery at the very top of the hill. This took up less-precious real estate because no one would want to go up and down the hill for housing. The town decided once up, was enough for most folks.

The town is in a very narrow gulch. The hills on each side are extremely high. I could see in the 1880s that it would be a great place to hide out. You could see anyone that approached from either end of town, if you had a stakeout. We learned that the town had completely burned down in the late 1800s, so when it was rebuilt, most buildings were constructed of stone and brick.



Overview of town from Boot Hill.

After our tour, we did some more walking around town. We went into a few shops, but Dave has now spent his wad on the bracelet, and of course, I'm no much interested. But, he did find some pins for his military service days and I found the greatest deck of playing cards. Each card has the story of a notorious person that was associated with Deadwood. So, now I have a useful history "book."

We slowly meandered around town and our destination was the far end of town where the play would be held. We found the plaque designating the location of the original saloon where Wild Bill was gunned down.



We found a bench in front of the Franklin Hotel, which was built in 1903. The view from under the portico at the hotel was of Boot Hill; it's at the top of the hill in this picture.





At the hotel, we did what we like best for the next hour: people watched. There was a guy that was standing on a second floor balcony across from us. At first we thought he was a tourist. But, then we realized he was counting jay walkers. It really became entertaining to watch him record folks. Some he would just click on a hand-held counter. Others, he would write something about. So, this passed an hour for us with simple entertainment.



At about 7:30 we walked up to the Masonic Temple where the trial would be held and purchased our tickets from Miss Kitty (yes, a saloon floozy). We found another bench and soon enough, the gunfight was held in the middle of town. Jack McCall was being drug up the street to stand trial. Naturally, there was a huge crowd of folks to follow and a tour bus had let out their bus load who were now lined up at the door of the temple.



As soon as the sheriff, judge, Calamity Jane, and Jack McCall arrived, everyone crowded in to purchase their tickets. We were one step ahead because we already had ours, so we just dashed up to the front of the theater and got front-row seats.

The actors picked 12 jury members and about 4 witnesses from the audience to play parts. So, that was fun. There was one little kid that they picked to be the court's sheriff. He was adorable. He took his part seriously, and I think he beat that poor actor playing Jack McCall with a rolled-up newspaper so much that he would have been black and blue by morning.



Here's the kid being sworn in and Jack McCall is in the chair.

Here's the interesting story of Jack McCall, as taken from Wikipedia (and so faithfully replayed in Deadwood's presentation):

Many of the details of McCall's life are lost. He was raised in Kentucky with three sisters, but drifted west and became a buffalo hunter. By 1876, he was living in a gold mining camp called Deadwood, South Dakota, under the alias of Bill Sutherland.

On August 2, 1876, in the Nuttal & Mann's #10 Saloon in Deadwood, McCall shot Hickok in the back of the head with a double-action .45-caliber revolver, shouting "Take that!"

Hickok, in contrast to his normal habit of sitting in a corner to protect his back, sat (on that day) with his back to the door while engaged in a game of poker.

Ironically, the killing was apparently over McCall's drunken resentment of an act of generosity by Hickok--Hickok having offered McCall money to buy breakfast after McCall had lost it all playing poker the previous day.

McCall claimed, however, that the killing was retribution for Hickok having previously killed McCall's brother in Abilene, Kansas. McCall was found innocent after two hours deliberation by an impromptu court in McDaniel's Theater made up of local miners and businessmen, causing the Black Hills Pioneer to editorialize:

"Should it ever be our misfortune to kill a man ... we would simply ask that our trial may take place in some of the mining camps of these hills."

McCall then fled town to Wyoming, where he bragged, at length, about how he had killed Hickok in a fair gunfight. Unfortunately for McCall, however, the Wyoming authorities refused to recognize the result of McCall's first trial on the grounds that Deadwood had been in Indian Territory at the time of the trial and contended that McCall could legally be tried again. Because Deadwood was an illegal settlement, with no legally constituted law enforcement or court system, the federal court in Yankton, Dakota Territory (D.T.), declared that double jeopardy did not apply.

McCall was retried in Yankton, D.T., for Hickok's murder, and was hanged on March 1, 1877, at the age of 24. McCall was the first person to be executed by United States officials in Dakota Territory. After his execution it was determined that McCall had never even had a brother.

It was a fun presentation in which the audience was able to participate, so we were glad we were up-front to witness it in detail. It was really crowded and there was standing room only. I took so many pictures and movies that my battery ran out. But, I captured most of it.

When the trial was over, we boarded the trolley back to the other end of town to our car. We had planned to leave Spearfish on Friday morning and head northwest. However, with the car now in need of a look-see, we had to stay another night and leave on Saturday, instead. We stopped at the office to pay up.

We didn't have dinner because we had eaten lunch so late, and it was quite filling. We just had some left-over cake and ice cream back at the RV and called it a night.